Party
by Lil-Samuu
Summary: Nonsense oneshot set after the game featuring most of the group. Set on a night after a party at Meltokio.


One-shot piece of nonsense fluff set after the game just after a party in Meltokio. Features most of the group.

I've assumed that when she's not in Mizuho and around her friends Sheena would be willing to be a bit less formal and allow herself to be a little bit silly, fitting in with the fact that she is willing to let her hair down a bit when around Colette in some of my other fics.

Sorry that I've not written anything for quite a while, I've been rather busy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, as far as I'm aware Namco own it. I'm just an obsessed fan with a lot of plot bunnies. :)

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His friends hadn't been joking when, when he'd asked them what they'd be wearing to the fancy dress party, they'd simply said that he'd know it was them when he saw them Genis thought. Their costumes had stood out even more than he'd thought they would, even keeping in mind the fact that Zelos didn't care much for stuffy parties and therefore making this one a fancy dress party was just asking for him to pull some mad stunt.

It seemed that there was almost always a party going on in Meltokio and the group of heroes he had travelled with were often invited to them, were invited to so many that they only attended a small number of the ones they could have gone to. The fact that most of the group found formal parties rather dull meant that they only attended enough to be polite. This party had been slightly less formal, however, being a fancy dress one and it had been clear from the second he'd entered the room followed by Sheena, Lloyd and Colette that Zelos intended to be as informal and have as much fun as possible.

Considering most of the costumes others at the party had been wearing had been fairly plain and unremarkable the appearance of a flamboyantly dressed pirate, complete with a hat with a huge feather in it, had grabbed people's attention. Those who hadn't turned round when Zelos had walked through the door had done so when he'd started cheerfully yelling clichéd piratical phrases over the music which the band had stopped playing after his second yell, making him seem all the more louder. The other three had all sworn that Zelos hadn't touched a drop of alcohol before he'd arrived at the party. If he didn't trust them so much Genis would have found that hard to believe.

"What were you thinking, turning up dressed like that?" he asked the redheaded swordsman as they walked from the party to the former Chosen's old house.

"That it'd be fun, and it was. Besides, it meant easy to put together costumes for those two," Zelos replied, laughing as he pointed at Lloyd and Colette.

Genis shook his head but couldn't help smiling. It was probably the case that the outfits those two were wearing had been the only ones at the party that had actually been worn outside of a fancy dress party. Somehow he doubted that Lloyd had worn the plush toy parrot on his shoulder when he and Colette had been on their journey to collect up exspheres though.

"Remind me again why you still have those outfits?" the half-elf mage asked.

"You try getting onto a ship with a young woman and an Arshis, a lot of sailors are superstitious. Sometimes we didn't have a lot of choice over which boats to get on and looking the part helped to actually get us on one," Lloyd nodded.

"I can't believe you two, I really can't," Genis shook his head as Colette, grinning, started talking in a masculine tone about sailing.

Genis hit the palm of his hand against his head as Sheena drew the wooden sword that was tucked into her belt as part of her costume, declared that she thought that Colette didn't make a very good pirate and challenged her to a duel. Colette insisted that, under a different name, a more masculine one she'd used on the exsphere collecting journey when travelling on boats, she made a very good pirate and then accepted the challenge.

"Guys, guys, people are trying to sleep, stop," Genis sighed, exasperated, as the friends began a mock sword battle, throwing comedic, sailing themed insults at one another as they battled.

"He has a point," Raine added, loudly so that the battling duo would hear her over their jeers. Apparently she'd not spoken loudly enough, or they were having too much fun to care, as the battle continued, causing a few lights to switch on and a few faces to appear at windows in the nearby houses.

Suddenly silence ensued and a light splash was heard.

"My hat! You knocked my hat into the water! You'll pay for this!" Colette pretended to get very angry, although not very convincingly as by this time she was trying to stifle giggles, as she pointed at her hat which Sheena had knocked off her head into a water fountain.

"Uh oh!" the summoner yelped then ran. Colette ran after her, yelling about getting revenge for knocking her hat off her head.

Lloyd and Zelos collapsed into a fits of laugher as the blonde tackled the older woman to the ground and began to hit her with a harmless squeaky mallet that she'd apparently pulled out of nowhere.

"Oh no, I've been beaten, must go towards the light," Sheena acted hammily, pretending to die noisily. Once she'd stopped making unpleasant gurgling sounds Colette clapped her hands together in a satisfied manner then walked over to the fountain, retrieved her now soaking wet hat and plopped it right back onto her head causing the others to laugh even louder.

"Do you know what time it is?" an angry voice yelled from a tall window.

"I apologise for disturbing you, me shipmates and I were just enjoying some shore leave," Zelos called up to the woman who was scowling angrily down at them, sweeping his hat off in a gesture of apology.

"Zelos? Oh, I'm sorry, I, uh," the woman, one of the ones who had fawned over him years ago, blushed and disappeared back into her room, embarrassed to have yelled at the former Chosen who she'd not been able to recognise due to the large hat he'd been wearing.

Zelos, Lloyd, Colette and Sheena burst out laughing.

"Hey you, you're supposed to be dead, no laughing!" Colette pretended to be angry at Sheena. When the summoner failed to stop laughing Colette shook her head.

"Right, that's it, you leave me no choice, Polly, attack!" she yelled, grabbing the plush toy parrot from Lloyd's shoulder and throwing it at the older woman.

"I don't believe you guys, I just, really," Genis shook his head in a gesture of exasperation.

"We're only having a bit of fun, it's good to have a laugh every once in a while, especially after everything we've been through," Zelos replied.

"A bit of fun? You call dancing a jig on the tables at a party full of nobles and important people 'a bit of fun'?" the mage asked.

"Don't look at me, I had nothing to do with that, they were the ones that paid the band to play that song and jumped up onto the table," Zelos shrugged innocently as he nodded at Lloyd and Colette who began to dance again.

"It was fun, it's a great dance this one," the swordsman grinned.

"You have to admit the looks on those stuck up peoples' faces when they saw those two dancing on the tables were rather amusing," Presea smiled gently.

"But, but, I," Genis stuttered.

"No one was dancing, that dance floor was being wasted. Someone had to encourage people to start dancing," Colette smiled and nodded.

"Did you have to do that so drastically though?" Genis raised an eyebrow.

"It worked didn't it? And didn't everyone who joined in with the dancing look like they were having fun?" the blonde replied, smiling.

As they reached the door to Zelos' old house, now Seles' place, where they'd be spending the night Genis couldn't help but sigh a sigh of relief. At least once they were inside there wouldn't be anyone else about, apart from Seles and the butler, for them to make fools of themselves in front of. As much as he cared about and loved his friends sometimes he really just didn't understand them.


End file.
